Montreal & Munich

En route to Athens, we had about a 10 hour layover in Montreal. We decided that instead of sitting in an airport all day that we would adventure off to Montreal, where neither of us had ever been, and see the sights. We saw a few things. We walked all day long (which helped us sleep on the overnight plane ride to Athens) and that was about it. One of the coolest things that we saw was the Notre Dame Cathedral. Wow! It was incredible. We spent a significant amount of time admiring all of the hand-crafted woodwork that was inside the cathedral and the stained glass and the list goes on. Montreal had lots to see. There is a wonderful river walk where you can peacefully enjoy the city's beauty. There was a restaurant and art district where we leisurely strolled in the afternoon. It was nice. I'm glad we went. I'm not sure I'll ever take the time to go back. Although we only saw downtown, I'm satisfied enough to say I've been there!

Munich was on our way home from Greece. We were in the city for about 5 hours. The train to and from the airport took up about 2 of those hours, but it was still better than sitting in the airport. We went to Marienplatz and wandered around there. I wanted Dave to see the famous glockenspiel and take him to eat at the famous Hofbräuhaus. Well, it had been over a year since I'd been to Munich and so my instinct said to go a certain way. So we started walking to this brewery and Dave looked at the map and said, "I think we're going the wrong way". Well, I decided that he was probably right so we walked to the place where he said we should aim and ended up at the train station (hofbahnhof) instead! Oops! Oh well. We hopped on a quick subway back to Marienplatz and before we knew it, we were eating at our destination. It was nice. Hopefully we'll make it back sometime!

Athens

OK, back for more! We loved Athens. Our biggest regret was not spending more time there. We spent half a day there when we flew into Greece and almost a full day there on our way out. I was anxious to go there because that is where my Grandmother was born. We loved all the rich history, the way you could get lost in the plaka area and all the smells from the restaurants . I loved seeing the ancient ruins. The temple of the Apollo Zeus & the Acropolis were amazing. We were there on a full-moon and we got to tour the Acropolis at night. It was crazy packed with people!!! It was wild. Dave was amazing with all the great photo's he took at sunset at each place. Our last night in Greece we stayed at the Athens Gate hotel, you can see from the nite-time picture below that we had an amazing view of the Temple of Apollo Zeus. The pictures say it all. We ate in cafe's, we toured ancient ruins, we had a great time!

Spetses, Greece

We were on Spetses the longest compared to any other location. In some ways, that was nice because we'd been doing a lot of bouncing around. But the down-side was that I was there for work (although, if it weren't for work, we wouldn't have been able to afford such a vacation since the air fare was quite expensive). I was in Spetses for a Host-Microbes Interactions course. I don't regret going, but it was geared more for younger PhD and master students, not those about to finish their PhD! But no matter, I did enjoy it and met some nice people.

Spetses was where we relaxed. We didn't hurry to see every site that there was to see. But we did get out almost every day. David spent his days exploring and reading in the sun while I was away. It was a nice time on a beautiful island. It was by far the greenest island we had been to. The most lovely thing about it was all the secluded beaches. David rented a motor scooter and scouted out the best places for us to go on my daily 4-hour mid-day break from conferencing. We did a lot of snorkeling in these seemingly un-touched coves... it was wonderful!

Hydra (Pronounced "Heedra")

When we arrived at the port of Hydra, we fell in love. This island, free of all cars (with the exception of the occasional trash truck), was wonderful. People took their little sail boats everywhere and it was calm and relaxed. This was the last island that we stayed at for "holiday" before my conference began on the island Spetses. The crazy thing about Hydra is that it is totally infested with cats. Most are well behaved and they don't seem to bother the greeks, but when you're eating at an outdoor cafe, they beg like dogs do for food. They rub up against your leg so that you know that they are there and they travel in packs of at least five. We weren't too keen on the cats, but it was part of Hydra. We mostly relaxed. We spent some time swimming in the beautiful water. There weren't any beaches, just concrete slabs with ladders going into the water. Not great for sun-bathing but for an afternoon dip, it was perfect!

Fira, Santorini

Well, I know it's been wayyy too long, and truth be told, I have nothing but the typical excuses. but here we are. The second town that we stayed in on the island of Santorini is Fira. Actually, our amazing hotel, Anteliz Hotel Apartments, was situated exactly between Fira and Firastefani. We walked to both towns daily. What was interesting about Fira, is that when we arrived, a cloud arrived with us and it wouldn't go away (see pictures below). But it was still nice once we figured out how to navigate this truly confusing city! The night life was bustling and the shops were full. It was spectacular. One view that I particularly loved was this view of the caldera. This is an amazing view at night, the blackness is the water. All you see are cliffs with lights from hotels and from restaurants. Across from these cliffs was the famous volcano (which only looks like a small hill in the ocean) but nonetheless, very cool.

The beaches in Santorini were not great. They looked dirty and were hot to stand on, all due to the dark red sand. But we decided that we had to go anyways. The beach that we decided to go to was pretty packed. What's interesting is that young girls do not wear tops to their bikini bottoms until they are a bit older. Sometimes pushing the puberty line... Dave and I found ourselves thinking "how can that father be okay with his 12 year old daughter walking around without a top on?!?" It was interesting. Speedo's were definitely more of the norm over there for men.